"Musicians Wanted: Pro Attitude a Must"

I remember many years ago hearing people describe the first Secret Stars cassette as "makeout music." Little did I know that my music would eventually evolve into full-on baby makin' music. Now, I'm no Al Green, and my songs certainly haven't gotten any more romantic, but it seems that I have started Boston's most fertile band. I should have taken it as a sign when Luther Gray would patiently hold his infant daughter in his lap behind the drums during the first Glorytellers rehearsals a couple years ago. Since then no less than four other band mates have succumb to fatherhood. My longtime pal Josh Larue made it through two tours until he and his wife Jamie gave birth to their beautiful new daughter Iris the week our record was released. His replacement, Brooklynite Ty Citerman who plays in the Jazz/Noise band Gutbucket, was on board until he learned his first child was due in April, the month we were to be on tour supporting the record. Fortunately we found Jef Charland, yet another talented guitarist (and all-around great guy), who took Ty's place for April. A week into the tour he informed us that his first child was due around the time of our upcoming European tour this September. And finally, Gavin McCarthy, the drummer with whom I've traveled to twenty countries over the past fifteen years, is expecting his firstborn in November.

Needless to say in a few months all of these talented folks will have a lot more to think about than music, and I'll be once again looking for a touring band. If you know me, I've already picked your brain for talented guitarists, and once Gavin drops I'll be looking for a fill-in drummer too. Know any folks who might fit the bill? Please send 'em my way!

Just some odds and ends:

Here is the aforementioned Iranian documentary on local genetic biologist/indie rocker Pardis Sabeti in which I took part. If you want to see me, you'll have to sit through a half hour of farsi before I make my cameo! Also, here's a recently-posted interview that I did in Catania a few years back on the last Karate tour, along with some video from the show. If your wondering why we're quizzically looking at each other throughout the song, it's because the shoddy stage felt as if it was going to collapse with each beat of the kick drum. I also posted the May Joe Lally/Glorytellers tour dates below, and I'll be playing locally at the Lilly Pad w/Italian singer/songwriter Giovanni Truppi on May 15th. Also thanks to those of you who emailed empathetic responses to my last rant. It's nice to know I'm not the only one out there who's dissatisfied with the small club scene, and it's always great to hear from people who appreciate my sounds.

Midwest Redux

On most tours there's eventually a show that makes all the lousy parts of touring seem worthwhile. The months of logistical preparations, the shrinking bank account, the daily 8 hour drives, the greasy spoons and stomach aches, the endless string of deafening openers, the 30-degree March weather, the flu passed from band-mate to band-mate, the lousy stage sound, the sleepless nights at noisy Motel 6s and on filthy, cat-hair-and-cannibus-stem-encrusted apartment floors, and all the other hazards of small-time touring seem to melt away when you are lucky enough to play a show for 50 people who know and genuinely appreciate your music. Unfortunately on our recent Midwest US tour, these shows were few and far between. Night after night, we played for almost nobody (and in Des Moines, nobody), or we played for 40 people who tried to listen while another 40 people talked loudly over the music, or we played while the opening band (who often declared themselves to be our fans) got drunk in front of the stage and bantered at top volume over our set.

I hate to have to say this, but some of the opening bands on this tour were really a drag. But before you peg me as an old man who's out of touch with the kids, let me say first that I give bands a fair shake. Any band who put their heart into music that they believe in, and who actually try to sound good, are OK in my book, and I usually make a point to tell them so, even if I don't like their music. Music is for everyone, and I'll get behind anyone who is inspired enough to write heartfelt songs and deliver them with sincerity, no matter how talented they are. But I don't get behind uninspired bands who get up on stage to get drunk and fuck around, and who don't give a shit about their own sound. We had to sit through at least two bands who proudly told us "we haven't even practiced in six months," one band that repeatedly stopped in the middle of their songs to go to the bar (and then drunkenly complained to me and the promoter about not getting paid enough), a number of bands who either couldn't or didn't bother to tune their instruments, and many bands that were so loud that they were simply unbearable. (The hardcore band that opened for us in Pittsburgh was so loud that I had trouble talking on the phone on the street outside the venue while they were playing.) And the reoccurring theme seemed to be the opening band who proudly proclaimed how much Karate or the Secret Stars had meant to them, and who proceeded to get drunk and rudely converse at the top of their lungs in front of the stage as we attempted to play. Gee, thanks for the props... In fact the most talented new band we came across was probably Who Shot Hollywood?, who played unique, catchy, tight pop/punk songs with lively sincerity. Who Shot Hollywood? is a group of teens aged 12-14 taken on tour by their parents.

To be fair there were a precious few bands who sounded great, and you know who you are because we thanked you for playing, and here I thank you again. Predictably the best was Ida, who continue to take their wonderful sound into fertile new territory. Other nice surprises were all the helpful and friendly promoters, and all the dedicated soundmen who did a great job for us almost every night, even when there was nobody there to listen. And there were a few great shows: thanks to all of you who came out in Dubuque, Milwaukee, Brooklyn, NYC, and Boston. We really tried to lay it down for you those nights, and your attention and enthusiasm really made a difference. But in the end those shows felt too few and far between, and the tour generally left us with a bad taste in our mouths.

But back home things started looking up. The first thing I did was hit the Cahoots/Chris Brokaw/Wussy show down the street at PA's, which was the best rock show I've seen so far this year, and which did a lot to resuscitate my damaged constitution. Then the next day Joe Lally called me from his new home in Rome and asked me to play on some of his songs for the upcoming East Coast Joe Lally/Glorytellers tour in May. Joe recently put out two intense records on Dischord, and I'm really looking forward to sharing the stage with him. The same day my pal Andy Hong asked me to come to his studio to back up Pardis Sabeti, a local singer/songwriter who also happens to be an Oxford Rhodes Scholar and a Harvard MD, and who runs the Broad Institute at MIT where she does genetics research. This unassuming Iranian-American indie rocker/supergenious became an international celeb in the science world when she developed an algorithm which helped to establish the effects of genetics on the evolution of human diseases. Needless to say I jumped at the gig, and sure enough it wasn't your every-day jam. When I showed up at the studio I learned from the producer/cameraman that a major Iranian TV station was making a documentary on Pardis, and that they wanted to have some footage of "her musical side." In about two hours we learned three of her songs on piano and steel-string, and we taped a performance that will apparently be seen by 13 million Iranians! Certainly my biggest exposure to date. To boot Andy made my new (used) Collings DS2H flatpicker sound awesome, so thank you Andy and Pardis for a great session!

So, my weird life goes on. I'm sure my rapid ascent to Iranian stardom will seem like a distant memory the next time I'm stuck playing in some dive for 10 sweaty drunks after the local fake-Jesus Lizard-cum-Fugazi, but I'll forget about that the next night when 50 fans show up in some new town, or when I get to share the stage with another inspired group of talented teens. Despite the road bumps and bellyaching, I still feel lucky to do what I do, and after 20 years and a thousand shows, I've learned to take the good with the bad. But it never ceases to amaze me how lousy "the bad" can be...

Glorytellers on tour

Thanks to Adam Arcuragi for having me along for a fine weekend of shows in NY, Philly and Boston. Adam's band sounded great and his catchy songs are still stuck in my head. My favorite show was definitely at PA's Lounge right here in Somerville, where Chris Brokaw and I sounded off duo-style. Billy Ruane (Boston's finest x-promoter/underground sound zealot) was in rare form, heckling Chris and I, prosthelitizing (and rightly so) about how lucky we are to have Tony and Jerry putting on shows at PA's, handing out drinks and fancy cookies and deviled eggs, buying up and handing out all of Adam's CDs, and of course, busting his patented moves. Billy put everyone in a good mood, and the night reminded me of the Boston shows of 20 years ago, when underground music wasn't so serious and people came out just to have a few drinks and a good time.

I'll be offline for most of March as my Glorytellers will be heading out for three weeks of Northeast/Midwest gigs, going from Buffalo to Minneapolis to Denver to Chicago and back home through New York, where we'll play two shows with our pals Ida, who also have a new record out. Dates are below...hope to see you there!

Happy Birthday Cal!

To help celebrate the 2nd birthday of everyone's Pal Cal Robbins, my buddy Drew O'doherty set up this Cal Robbins benefit Ebay auction. There are lots of great items including copies of Shellac's "The Futurist", an Evens poster signed by Ian and my little sis Amy, and even a guitar lesson from yours truly. Hmmmm...only one bid on that so far....

BTW, I'm up on my soapbox over at Southern Records' Headphones of the Rich and Famous, and check out this Xbox game called Burnout Paradise that apparently ripped off the artwork from Karate's Unsolved! At least they gave it a cool name.

From Detroit to Tokyo

Am I the only one who sees irony in the fact that there is a TV blaring CNN at just about every TSA checkpoint? Am I the only one who remembers CNN's animated graphics of Iraqi missiles aimed at Jerusalem, their incessant WMD drumbeating, their flow charts linking 9/11 hijackers to Iraqi officials, their declaration of victory in Iraq, or their general dearth of coverage of the biggest anti-war protests in modern history? Does it occur to anyone else that CNN's biased, Bush-pandering, sensationalist, fear-mongering, flag-waving parochialism could be even remotely related to the fact that a few radicals want to blow up commercial jets? And is it any wonder that visitors from all over the world, who at our border are force-fed graphic images of some random violent car chase or pit bull attack, stories of OJ Simpson's/Paris Hilton's/Britney Spears' latest brush with the law, and the loud-mouthed browbeating of Nany Grace and Lou Dobbs; is it any wonder that these visitors who are inundated with these vapid images at US customs might at some point contemplate our national ignorance? As I disembarked my flight from Boston to Detroit en route to Japan, and as I was confronted with an even bigger, louder Nancy Grace than that which I thought I had left at Logan's smaller (yet more numerous) TV screens, I cantankerously pondered these questions.

Things got worse after I left Detroit. My flight to Narita was supposed to last 13 hours, but after about 6 the plane took thousand-mile detour from somewhere north of the Arctic circle back to Anchorage Alaska for a medical emergency. After a suspenseful landing in Anchorage during a snowstorm, we sat in our seats on the runway for 3 hours while paramedics rushed on and off the plane, engineers allegedly repaired the "high-frequency radio," and runway workers continually de-iced the wings for one cancelled take-off after another. Since it was January, there were many flu-ridden passengers on board, and needless to say I arrived at Narita with a fever and nausea 16 hours after boarding in Detroit. After sleeping uninterrupted from 2AM to 8PM the following day, my fine host Kyoko knocked at my door reminding me that I hadn't eaten for 40 hours since the celebratory bowl of udon I downed at a Japanese restaurant at DTW before my flight (and which I had heaved during some "light chop" an hour later).

But after some iced sencha, some fresh vegetable soup, and one of the best clementines I've ever tasted, I was feeling human once again and things were looking up. I spent the next few lovely days exploring Tokyo, one day walking from Akihabira through the Imperial Gardens and then south to Ginza, and another riding glass elevators up and down department stores in Shinjuku marveling at the endless urban landscape. This was my third time in Tokyo, and as I continued to try to get my head around the city I was awestruck by its sprawling density. During my first trip to Tokyo in 2004 I walked from my hotel in Akasaka to Akihabira to Ginza and then back to my hotel, a trek that took me almost an entire day and that only provided a mere glance of Tokyo's diversity. Miles of monolithic office skyscrapers opened into the sprawling forests and gardens of the Imperial Palace, and then turned to the endless colored lights of glowing arcades, hidden restaurants, and roaring Pachinko parlors. This year's exploration was no less dizzying, and the countless hours I spent walking in Tokyo yielded more bewilderment and inspiration.

Oh, and we played some good shows to boot! Afterhours had done a great job promoting the Glorytellers release, and Karate/Secret Stars fans came out en masse to hear the new band. The meticulous Japanese sound engineers made us sound pro, and all three sets went off without a hitch. After our set each night Him blew minds, and we also had some great openers including Bordom's drummer Senju, who played a hypnotizing, clever solo set that had us all scratching our heads. Taka and Kyoko and their young son Shusuke were wonderful hosts, and they treated us to amazing multi-course meals each night, highlights of which included grilled fugu (a kind of blowfish that contains enough poison to kill 30 grown men), kidney yakitori, chicken sashimi (yes, that's raw chicken), and much, much shochu. Even the return trip had its inspiring moments, on the bus to Narita as I gazed back at Roppongi's towering apartment buildings from the top of the Rainbow Bridge, and on the flight as I scoured my Fodor's Japan for random factoids about the different neighborhoods I had traversed. But after another 18 hours of flights and layovers I had my grumpy New Englander 'tude back again, and it felt good to cut in and out of traffic and curse at Boston drivers on my way home from Logan during rush hour.

Back home things are ramping up for the Glorytellers stateside release. Thanks to Riot Act Media, the release has already generated some press in Magnet, Alternative Press, AM New York, Sparkplugg, PopMatters, Pitchfork, and elsewhere. And it's only fitting that a record that I dragged out for three years has no less that 4 separate release dates! Afterhours dropped it the first week of the new year, it comes out on Southern Europe on January 28th, Southern US on February 25th, and the official press release date is April 8th. Check back here soon for US tour dates!

Grazie Italia!

Grazie to all of who attended my Italian shows, to all of the promoters for hosting me, and to Massimo Pupillo for putting together a great tour. It was truly the best solo tour I've had in Italy, and I was elated to see big turnouts in Udine, Rome, Napoli, Livorno and Pavia. Milan and Florence were a bit less well-attended, but a lot of fun just the same. I was also pleasantly surprised at how attentive all the audiences were to my often-quiet performances. I had psychologically prepared myself for the typical noisy Southern European crowds, but even in Livorno and Napoli where the clubs were packed with weekend revelers, it was obvious that many people came to listen, and this I greatly appreciate. Predictably the driving was a struggle, especially due to the construction that obstructed the 100Km stretch of mountainous highway north of Florence (through which I had to drive almost every day), but I sang lots of Norman Blake songs to myself to pass the time.

In fact Florentine traffic was so bad that I managed to plow through John Fahey's How Bluegrass Music Destroyed My Life and Steven Calt's I'd Rather Be the Devil primarily while sitting in stopped traffic. Friends had warned me of the crotchety hipsterism of both of these books, so I expected to love to hate them both. To a great extent I did, but they were also both strangely insightful and a lot of fun to read. I've been a marginal Fahey listener since seeing him live in 1997 a few years before his death, but I've always been skeptical of his cultish following, most of whom are unfamiliar with the American pre-war blues and ragtime from which most of his music is derived. Although much of Fahey's music amounts to slower and less nimble versions of classic fingerpicking themes, there is a certain addictive charm to it that is undeniable. Fahey's stories have a similar charm, even though most of them are cranky tirades against everything he deems inauthentic (parents, folk festivals, Antonioni, most other musicians), and fantasies about the few things he deems authentic (yoga, breakfast foods, the music of Hank Williams, Booker White and Henry Vestine). Regardless, his accounts of childhood gangs, punching out Antonioni, and tracking down Skip James are pure entertainment (if not pure fact), and his commitment to his own music and the music he loves is inspiring.

Predictably Calt's account of Fahey's search for Skip James shares few facts with Fahey's own account. I'd Rather Be the Devil is at times even more dubious than Bluegrass, as Calt derives questionable conclusions from interviews with James, a primary source that Calt himself has deemed unreliable. Many of Calt's arguments amount to the grumpy sophistry of a frustrated musician, and I found it more fruitful to draw my own conclusions from James' transcribed stories. Calt himself is unforgiving towards James, and for all the time Calt claims to have spent with James, he certainly does not speak like a friend or admirer. Calt sees James as primarily defensive, egocentric, and dishonest, qualities that were no doubt virtues to James' pimping and moonshining careers. Although there is little doubt that James was once a murderous criminal, Calt's account is caustic to a fault, and it's no surprise that I'd Rather Be the Devil caused much derision among fans, and at least one lawsuit from one of its subjects. But the voyeur in me couldn't put the book down, despite all its faults. I was fascinated by the vivid accounts of barrelhouse pimping and turpentine camp murders, and also by the reoccurring question of how someone who lived under such self-imposed and societal repression could produce music with such emotional resonance.

Needless to say I'll be packing something a bit more lighthearted for my trip to Japan next week. More on that coming soon...

Buone Feste!

No news to report since my last check-in, but I wanted to leave a "Happy Holidays" note before I split to Italy for a week of shows. Hoping for some great solo shows and dreading some not-so-great solo driving, but fortunately I have a brand new stack of Norman Blake CDs to keep me company on the lonely autostrada. I'll return to the States on the 31st, but I'm off to Japan on January 6th for the Glorytellers record-release tour w/Him! I'm really looking forward to this Japan jaunt because we have a couple days off to explore Tokyo and Osaka, two of my favorite places on earth. Arigato gozaimasu Afterhours for releasing our record and inviting us to Japan! More soon....

Spain Report

Just back from a whirlind trip to Castillon where I played the Tanned Tin festival with Chris Brokaw. We performed in a beautiful old-style opera theater that had wonderful acoustics, and we had a great time playing our twisted renditions of pre-WWII blues/ragtime tunes to appreciative festival goers. Predictably we consumed incredible piaella, chased our guitars around various airports, and stayed awake far too long. Truly a microcosm of past Euro-tours, but this one was much to short. In any case, thanks to Acuarela Discos for hosting us, and we hope to return sometime soon.

My Italian solo tour is shaping up, and the most recent dates are posted in the "Calendar" section to the right. We're also starting to work on Glorytellers dates that will start in early March, so check back here for those in the coming months. We should be covering everything East of the Rockies in March and April, and possibly the West Coast later in the spring. Anyone interested in helping us with a show can contact Mahmood Shaikh via our Flower Booking page.

595, Karate's new live release, finally showed up on my doorstep last week. It looks great, especially the 180-gram double LP! This interesting review from Popmatters caught my attention, as did this entertaining CMJ piece that references Jeff Goddard's "down-and-dirty bass solo." In my dreams! Even more entertaining is this amazing cover of Karate's Number 6...if only our video budget had been that bloated. And finally, here's an even weirder Karate-related sighting on what I'm told is Italy's premier Linux blog. Talk about OT!

New Releases!

I've been looking forward to October because it will bring two long-awaited releases: First, Karate's "595" will be released on Southern Records on October 23rd. This is a live set that was recorded in 2003 at Stuk in Leuven, Belgium. It's one of the best live Karate recordings we've heard, both in terms of our performance and the sound quality. (In fact it sounds better than some of our old studio recordings!) We've been trying to get this record out for years but ran into a number of random delays, so it's great to see it finally come to fruition. Ardecore's "Chimera" was due out last april and has also been plagued by delays, but it has finally been released on Il Manifesto in Italy. Although I played on 5 or 6 songs during the sessions, I haven't gotten my hands on the record yet, so I'm not sure how many of these actually made it to the release. In any case, from what I remember about the sessions, it's sure to be a great record.

Tonight I play what will probably be my last blues/ragtime set of the year at The Plough and Stars in Cambridge. My tenure there and at the Independent in Somerville has come to an end for the time being, but it's been a lot of fun and thanks to both venues for having me. On October 25th I'll be back in Cambridge at the Middle East Upstairs opening for British folkies Tunng, who have a great new record on Thrill Jockey. Soon after Chris Brokaw and I will be heading to Spain to play the Tanned Tin festival near Valencia on November 4th, and I'll be playing a week of shows in Italy in mid/late December to finish off the year.

I'd also like to welcome some new folks on board the soon-to-embark Glorytellers ship. First off, Chicago's Riot Act Media will be our publicist for the release. It was great to find out that David and Joan from Riot Act were both Karate/Secret Stars fans, and they are already working to get Glorytellers release the props it deserves. I'd also like to welcome Ty Citerman, guitarist for the Brooklyn punk/jazz freakout quartet, Gutbucket. Ty will be filling in for Josh Larue in April and May when Josh takes a break from music to become a father. Congratulations Josh!

Tellers Summer Tour Report

Once again I find myself shivering between the sheets with what I like to call Post Tour Syndrome (PTS), the strange flu-like malady that sets in within 12 hours of returning home from tour, and that is characterized by a host of unrelated symptoms and the absence of any actual virus. Symptoms of PTS include (but are not limited to) feverishness (usually w/no actual fever), mild nausea (rarely resulting in actual vomiting), the lowering of one's speaking voice by as much as an octave, and a Proustian uneasiness of leaving one's bed for more than a 10-hour period. But I can't complain; better to be sick after tour than on tour, and a great excuse to spend lazy summer afternoons wallowing through another 100 pages of Swann's Way, if only to rekindle the fantasy that I may someday actually finish the damn thing.

And once again I find myself in gratitude to YOU, who came to the shows without ever hearing our music, who bought CDs, and who were so enthusiastic about the new band. Unlike our February tour, we focused more on gallery-like venues than bars, resulting in shows where people actually came to hear music instead of to lean against the bar w/one hand on a PBR, glance condescendingly toward the band for half a song, and then babble incessantly in the background. Predictably, we had great shows at old haunts like the First Unitarian Church in Philly, Schuba's in Chicago, and the Black Cat backstage in DC. More surprisingly we had great turnouts on Martha's Vinyard where we played with local talents Jemima James and Nina Violet, and in my home town of Harrisburg PA where we sounded off in an old German social club. But the most fulfilling part of the trip was listening to Gavin and Josh play beautifully without fail, and hearing the band continue to evolve into something unique. I can't wait to get on the road again and hear what it grows into.

Even better news is that the Glorytellers record has finally found a home, or homes, to be exact. The Japanese label Afterhours (home to Him, Tarwater, Mice Parade) will release it in Japan in December of 2008, and my old cohorts at Southern Records will release it in Europe in mid-January, and in the US in mid-Feb of 2008. Anyone who knows me has witnessed my 2+ years of trepidation (admittedly, somewhat self-imposed) involved in getting this record finished and released, but the recording finally sounds like it's supposed to sound, and I'll be truly proud when it sees the light of day.

Both the Washington DC City Paper and the Pittsburg City Paper took notice of the Glorytellers tour despite the lack of a record, a publicist, and any actual recorded music outside of the three songs on our Myspace page. There's also been a lot of interest in Engine Room Recordings' recent release of the "Guilt by Association" CD that I share w/the likes of Petra Haden, Money Mark, and Mike Watt. The local Tab interviewed me for the upcoming GBA release party at TT the Bear's, and Monday's Boston Globe should also have a preview of the show.

If I can drag myself out of bed and down the street, I'll be playing tonight at the Independent in Union Square, and tomorrow (Monday) night at the aforementioned GBA listening party at TT's in Cambridge. I'm playing another GBA release party in Manhattan at Joe's Pub on September 7th with none other than Petra Haden. I'll also be playing an outdoor matinee on September 1st at the Simmons Organic Farm in Middletown RI, and I'll be back at the Independent on September 30th. Although my normal 1st-Thursday-of-the-month show at the Plough and Stars in Cambridge was cancelled for September, I'll be back at the Plough on Thursday Oct. 4th. But for now, back to Combray for another lazy afternoon.

Boston Rocks for Cal, Death Cab plays the Secret Stars, Farina plays the Minutemen!

We raised $2,500 for Cal Robbins last Friday and Saturday night, and had a blast doing it. Very special thanks to Ida, the Thalia Zedek Band, Mark Robinson, Neptune, Drew O'Doherty, Helms, Jodi Leo, and Chris Brokaw for volunteering their amazing performances, and to PA's Lounge, Brad Searles, and my wife Caterina Mongiat Farina for all the help putting the shows together. The great thing about both nights was that all the bands were so happy to be a part of it that they put on amazing performances all around. Ida brought tears to the eyes of their long-time Boston fans, Mark's uniquely wry humor put a smile on everyone's face, and Thalia's incredible voice made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Photos from both shows are here, here and here, and there was even a story about Cal, Jay and Janet Robbins on NPR's "All Things Considered" this past monday.

But my favorite part of the benefits was having the privilege to step on stage again with my pal Jodi Leo, as the second half of the Secret Stars. It was our first show in many years, and never did those 15-year-old songs feel so good as they did last Saturday. It a gift to see Jodi perform again, and to have a packed house at PA's at 9PM, so thanks to all who came to see us. A strange love for the Secret Stars continues to manifest itself; Here's Death Cab for Cutie performing "Wait," and the Italian band Perturbazione performing "Some Sinatra."

Last week I also had the privilege going into Camp Street Studio in Cambridge to record the Minutemen's "The Anchor" for "Stop Loss," the new Kim Pierce film that will be released early in 2008. No telling if the song will end up in the film yet, but the film's music supervisor and Mike Watt himself both seemed happy with my version (despite the fact that I botched some of the lyrics), so I'll keep my fingers crossed. Anyone who knows me knows that the Minutemen are one of my all-time faves, so this was definitely one of the best gigs of the year for me.

Finally, Glorytellers will kick off our summer tour at PA's Lounge on August 6th, and we'll be heading out to Chicago and down to DC. But before I split, I'll be back at the Independent in Union Square on Sunday July 29th, and at the Plough and Stars in Cambridge on Thursday, August 2nd. Both shows are free, both places have great menus and friendly atmospheres, so please stop by and have a pint.

"In the Presence of Greatness," or at least "Goodness"

Who ever thought I'd share a record with the likes of Mike Watt, Money Mark, Mark Mulcahy, Superchunk, Will Oldham, Devandra Banhart, Jim O'Rourke, and Petra Haden? Guilt by Association on Engine Room Recordings is a compilation of covers performed by all of the above and your's truly! Engine room asked us to rework a favorite guilty-pleasure pop song, and the resulting compilation features Watt doing BOC's "Burning for You," O'Rourke reworking the Spice Girls' "Viva Forever," Superchunk taking on "Say My Name" by Destiny's Child, Will Oldham wrestling with Miriah Care's "Can't Take That Away," and me taming "Two Tickets to Paradise" by Eddie Money. A unique concept to say the least. I'll also be playing at the Guilt by Association record release party at TT The Bear's Place in Central Square, Cambridge on August 27th.

I've set up a 2-day benefit concert for my pals J and Janet Robbins, who's son Callum Robbins was born with Spinal Muscular Atrophy. It's July 13th and 14th at PA's Lounge in Somerville, and features Neptune, Helms, the Brokaw/Farina Duo, Drew O'Doherty, Thalia Zedek, Mark Robinson, a rare Boston performance by Ida, and a one-night only Secret Stars reunion! Needless to say this show is not to be missed, so spread the word!

To top off a great summer, my new band Glorytellers will be on tour in the Northeast/Midwest US in August. Tour dates are posted at the Glorytellers Myspace page, and will be posted here soon. This tellers incarnation features Josh Larue and Gavin McCarthy, and we'll be heading from Boston to Chicago and then down to DC, so please come by. I've also been having a lot of fun playing locally, and will continue to play the first Thursday of every month at the Plough and Stars in Cambridge, and the last Sunday of every month at the Independent in Union Square, Somerville. Both shows are FREE, and I hope to see you there!

Lizard Report

Sorry I haven't posted for over a month, but there are better things to do in this kind of weather than stare at a computer, as I'm sure you'll agree. Thanks to all who came to see Chris Brokaw and I sound off at the Lizard Lounge last week in Cambridge. We had a great time playing even if we were a bit rough around the edges. We had an even better time being mesmerized by TK Webb who sounded amazing! 45 minutes of deep, Delta-tinged wierdness in a single open tuning.

I also had a nice show at the Independent the other night, or the "Indo" as it's known around these parts. I'll be back there on Sunday June 17th so please stop by. It's FREE and they have Old Speckled Hen on tap. I'll also be opening for my old friends Ida in Brooklyn on June 22nd. The show was moved when Tonic sadly closed, and the new venue is a little record store called Soundfix Records, right on Bedford Ave. I heard that this will most likely be Karla Schickele's last show w/Ida before she becomes a mom, so please stop by and wish her well!

Spring Shows Part II

I just added a couple more shows to top off the spring, this time at The Independent, a very nice, slightly fancy bar/restaurant right here in Union Sq. Somerville. They're just now starting to book live music on Thursday and Sunday nights and I thought it would be a unique place to try out some new songs. I'll be there on Sunday May 20th and Sunday June 17th, and each night I'll play 2 sets of a mix of originals and my ever-growing songbook of pre-war/pre-weird Americana. They also have a great kitchen, so please stop by!

Spring Shows

Man, what a great batch of shows coming up! I really lucked out this spring as I'll be a part of some truly great bills. First of all, I've been diligently working on "music" for a live film/sound event sponsored by Moviate at the Whitaker Center in Harrisburg, PA. I'll be performing live scores to two abstract films by Gary Adlestein, a film maker who in 1975 founded Berks Filmmakers Inc. , one of America's oldest experimental film venues.

I also have some great solo shows coming up: I'll be playing with WFMU DJ/banjo abstractionist Uncle Woody Sullander and psych/folk locals Baba Yaga down the street at PA's Lounge on Labor Day, May 1st. On May 10th I'll do another night with my pal Milo Jones, this time over at Zuzu in Central Square Cambridge. On June 4th I'll head up to The Red Door in Portsmouth, NH to share the stage with another fine guitar craftsman, Micah Blue Smalldone. And on June 6th I'll be back at Central Square in Cambridge when I open for Chicago's Califone at The Middle East Upstairs. And finally, on June 7th I sound off at The Plough and Stars, the best little Irish bar in Cambridge. I'll be playing the first Thursday of every month at the Plough in various configurations, so please stop by for some sounds and a Cuban.

The Brokaw/Farina duo will also be in action this spring, when we play at The Lizard Lounge in Cambridge w/TK Webb. Chris and I have been slowly but steadily working on recording our twisted versions of old blues/ragtime chestnuts, and hopefully there'll be a record by the end of the year.

So what more could one ask for this spring? Well, how about....spring? It was below freezing when I biked down to the April 7th Stooges show at the Orpheum! Didn't snow in April used to at least raise some eyebrows??

Odds and Ends

I thought I'd post a few unrelated things before I forget about them: Here's an interview done by Southern's own Brent Fuscaldo. It's a bit dated as it was done shortly after my latest solo EP was released last year, but for some reason it only recently surfaced. Here's a more recent interview and photos from my live set on WERS last week. I really enjoy playing in that studio because it always sounds good, and one of the walls in the tracking room is glass and looks out over Boston Common. Thanks to ERS for having me and I hope to return sometime soon. And finally, the Secret Stars cover fad continues with this take of Eventually from Alan Welsh. I haven't thought about that one for many years, but it's really nice to hear it again, even if it isn't me singing! More soon...

Tellers Tour Report

Thanks to all of you who came to see Glorytellers on our first tour, and thanks a lot to Rob Crow and his entourage for letting us tag along! It was so satisfying to hear my songs being played by a band again, especially when two-thirds of said band are Gavin McCarthy and Josh Larue. Gavin and Josh made the music come together in a way I never expected, and it was amazing to hear our songs delicately unfold to eager listeners in Philly and DC. I'm really excited about the distinct sounds of this band; a song would begin as a delicate, minimal abstraction and slowly blossom into something totally unique and beautiful.

On the other hand, it was extremely frustrating to be drowned out by loud drunks while playing next to the bar in Brooklyn and New Haven. I am definitely questioning if the rock club milieu is the right environment for this music, or for any music that doesn't beat you over the head with extreme volume. Unfortunately, aside from a handful of venues like the Flywheel in East Hampton and the First Unitarian Church's Chapel Room in Philly, there aren't a lot of non-bar alternatives. In any case, I'll certainly explore this issue further before planning the next tour.

At this point I've been getting daily emails asking about a Glorytellers record, along with similar interrogations at every show. In fact there is already a 10-song Glorytellers recording, but I haven't found anyone to release it yet. The recording is with a different lineup (Luther Gray plays drums and I play both Electric/Acoustic guitars) and was recorded with Andy Hong last year. Since November I've been looking for the right situation for the release with no luck so far. Of course I thought of asking my pals at Southern Records (home of most Karate and my solo recordings), but I'm already tied up in two projects with them at the moment. So if you know of an interested label that's been around for a while (Sorry, but I've had enough of my recordings disappear with new labels!) and that has good European distribution, please let me know.

Other odds and ends: I'll be doing a solo set at Toad in Cambridge this Sunday at 8PM. It's a different kind of venue than I'm used to (for one thing there's no cover!), so I'm looking forward to trying something new. I'll also be performing live on WERS at 3:30 PM on Wednesday the 14th as part of their Live Music Week, so tune in to 88.1 FM if you're in Boston and want to hear a few off-the-cuff songs. And finally, I was parusing Time Out NY and saw that Chris Brokaw and I got a "Top Live Show" pick for our Tonic show a few weeks back...go figure.

Farina/Brokaw report, Tellers on tour!

Chris Brokaw and I had a blast taking our pre-war ragtime operation down the East Coast this past weekend. We shared the stage with lots of great musicians, including Ida and David Grubbs' Wingdale Community Singers at Tonic in New York, Mandate of Heaven in Syracuse, and Lexie Roth (daughter of famed Tele-slinger Arlen Roth) in Amherst. Our Philly show pre-sold out, the Tonic show was packed (thanks to Ida and Wingdale), and our Hampshire College show filled up before sound check! Hampshire was definitely my favorite night of the weekend, mostly becuase Chris and I made lemonade with an old-school acoustic set after the PA broke down.

This interview was recorded in Ancona during the Zerang / Pupillo / Farina tour in Italy in 2005. We did a trio recording that has yet to see the light of day, but hopefully it will come to fruition soon. In the meantime, here are some photos from my shows at Stuk in Leuven Belgium, 1000FYRD in Aalborg Denmark, and the Kimchee 10th anniversary show at TT The Bear's right here in Cambridge. I always love getting links to live photos in my inbox, so please keep sending them!

And finally, Glorytellers will do a short East Coast tour this spring. It's been a long time coming, but the live version of the band has finally come together with Gavin McCarthy from Karate on drums. 4 of the shows will be opening for Rob Crow from Pinback, and I'll post more info on this tour soon.

Euro Tour Report

I usually try to share a road story or two after a long tour, but my December European tour was so exciting, grueling, painful, wonderful, and weird that I think I need to put it aside for a few weeks before I can see it in perspective. Suffice it to say that I drove around 12,000 km alone in a tiny car that topped out at 130kph, left my day bag (wallet, rental car papers, etc.) at an Autogrill only to have them miraculously returned to me the following day, and had a number of other little mishaps that added to the daily stress. The solo driving became so monotonous by mid-tour that I pretty much threw in the towel on a daily basis, just to pick it up again realizing how privileged I am to have a club-full of people waiting to hear my songs in a different beautiful city every night.

Fortunately I played for full houses almost every night and had some of the best solo shows of my career. I had a blast with Chris Brokaw and $2 Dollar Guitar in Rome, had great shows at some of my favorite European haunts like Stuk in Leuven and Conne Island in Leipzig, played for a giant steel dragon sculpture that shot 3 meters of fire from it's mouth at Tacheles in Berlin, and also had wonderful shows in Bremen, Hamburg, Napoli, Padova, Rome, and just about everywhere else I played. To everyone who came to see me play, my sincerest thanks to all of you! You made the monotony and stress of touring disappear for an hour every night, and made it all worth while.

This Friday I'll proudly sound off at part 2 of the Kimchee Record's 10th Anniversary party, which is sure to be festive with Bob Dubrow and Andy Hong at the helm. 27, Tiger Saw, Cornelia's Dad, Seekonk, and Hilken Mancini and Chris Colbourn will all be performing on this great bill. Saturday Chris Brokaw and I will play our solo sets along with our twisted versions of some old-time/ragtime/blues tunes at AS220 in Providence, so please stop by Rhode Islanders. Chris and I will take our show on tour later in January; more news on that soon...

Who are Glorytellers?

Just back from a great little Midwestern tour, and thanks to all of you who came to the shows! As I said during my sets, it's a privledge to be able to show up in your town and play my songs for you, so thanks for giving me the opportunity. All four midwest shows were great, and predictably the best was at Schuba's in Chicago, where people came out despite an early set-time and a small hurricane. I played two Secret Stars songs and a Charlie Patton tune with my pal Nathan McBride, which was the highlight of the night for me.

I'll be heading to Europe around Thanksgiving for a couple of tours that will round out the end of the year. First there are a few Ardecore shows in Northern Italy, and then solo shows in Italy, Germany, Austria, Belgium and Denmark. As usual, the dates are posted under the "Calendar" heading on the right, and at the Southern Farina page, and we'll try to keep these dates as current as possible. With this said, I've recently received a lot of of emails from people trying to figure out last-minute details about my shows. Often if something changes the new information doesn't always make it to our Web sites in time, and I am usually unable to answer email regularly when I travel. The best way to find out information about a show is to call the venue instead of emailing me or Southern. And for those of you who are gracious enough to travel from out of town to a show, I highly recommend you check the info w/the venue's listing/Web site before making the trip.

Finally, some of you already know that I've been working on a new band called Glorytellers. Luther Gray and I recorded 12 songs last March with Andy Hong at Kimchee studio. Andy and I have been working all year on the recordings, and we finally finished the mixes this week. No word on where the songs will end up yet, but I've been talking to a couple labels about the idea for a while now. The live version of the band is currently a duo w/my pal Josh Larue, the amazing guitar player who played on Reverse Eclipse and who currently plays in Mice Parade and Him. The idea was originally to find a drummer and play the arrangements from the recording, but we played our first show as a duo at PA's Lounge last week. We're keep our eyes out for a drummer who can fill Luther's shoes, but in the meantime we're planning a short tour as a duo in the early spring, so check back here after Christmas for the first Glorytellers tour dates!

Venue change/Midwest solo tour:

Tomorrow's show at Mass MOCA was moved from the MOCA's Cafe Latino to a CAC loft space. I'm not sure which one, but I'm sure if you poke around you'll find it. It should be a great show, and I'm very excited to see Sean Smith and Matt Baldwin play. I've been enjoying the Sean Smith/Adam Snider/Matt Maldwin "Berkely Guitar" disk lately. The homage is a bit more crude than Takoma's honored John Fahey/Peter Lang/Leo Kottke LP, but it's got a certain charm all its own. Speaking of charm, I hope to pull bassist Nathan Mcbride on stage for my Schuba's show in Chicago in the 10th, and I'll also be appearing at The House Cafe in Dekalb, and a few other midwest venues next weekend. Hope to see you there!

FMC musings and a ton of shows!

Ahh, FMC '06...seems like ages ago, but here's my tardy report nonetheless: First off, kudos to Kristin Thompson, Jenny Toomey, and Pop Montreal for for gathering such a diverse crowd of musicians and music industry folk in one place. There was a huge variety of opinions floating around and much to be learned, to say the very least. I listened to David Byrne's insightful (albeit bleak) outlook on the future of record labels, and also listened to a few music industry types who seemed to be indifferent or even hostile to the musicians on their panels. On a more positive note, it turns out that w/Jessica Thompson from Boston's Peerless Mastering was on my music preservation panel, and she had lots of great things to say about the technical side of music archiving and preservation. Peerless has been involved in some interesting sound-archiving projects lately, including digitizing a basement full of reels that contains old music from Belize. I was also able to make a few good contacts for Clarkson University's so-called Juma Sultan archiving project (see below), and hopefully we'll start hearing some of Juma's recordings soon.

My first show ever in Canada took place Oct. 5th at Montreal's La Sala Rossa. It was pretty much unremarkable save the club's friendly hospitality and incredible chorizo/mushroom tapas. I also played another Boston-area show at PA's a few nights ago with John McCauley aka Deertick. John somehow pulled off a couple of great Skip James tunes that inspired me to bust out some Blind Blake of my own. I'll be at PA's for the third time this fall w/Chris Brokaw and Two Dollar Guitar on November 18th. And as you can see from my exploding "calendar" section on the right, 30+ shows crept into my schedule, so please stop by if I'm playing near you!

FMC Policy Summit

Did you ever wonder why some of the best American roots music is only available on European labels like Document, JSP, and Proper? It's because, believe it or not, it is illegal to domestically distribute much of America's musical heritage. In fact the copyrights to most American commercial music recordings made before 1972 are privately held, and the holders have only made about 14% of this music legally available on CD in the US! Is this why the most comprehensive collections of Blind Blake, Lonnie Johnson, Blind Boy Fuller, and many other American greats are on European labels?

On October 5th I'll be at the Future of Music Coalition's annual Policy Summit in Montreal talking about this and other related issues. I'll be on a panel called "Losing Music: Preservation and Storage" that will deal with the legal and technological challenges of archiving, preserving, and distributing musical history. Other panelists include WFMU Station Manager Ken Freedman, McGill University's Audio-Visual Collections and Services Coordinator John Black, and Stewart Cheifet, the Director of the Audio & Video Internet Archive. I'll be talking about my work on the so-called "Juma Project," the NEA-funded effort to preserve and distribute Juma Sultan's treasure-trove of live recordings of Albert Ayler, Sam Rivers, James Ulmer, Pharoah Sanders, Rashid Ali, Sunny Murray, Archie Shepp, and many other jazz greats. And if you're coming to the conference on the 5th or to Pop Montreal the same week, please stop by La Sala Rossa on the 4th for the show: I'll be opening for Damien Jurado who always sounds great!

In other odds and ends, here's a nice review of the recent Gray/McBride/Farina Atavistic release, and some flattering words about Karate that someone emailed me recently. I'll be heading back to "Sweet Home Chicago" myself in November, and will post more info on my Midwest US dates soon, so check back soon!

New Atavistic CD

You may remember some recent braggadocio about a recording that I made with Nathan McBride (bassist w/Ken Vandermark, Pandelis Karayorgis) and Luther Gray (drummer w/Joe Morris Trio); Well after a year-and-a-half, the record has finally seen the light of day. It's called "Almanac" and it's Volume 4 of Atavistic's "Out Trios" project, a series of trio recordings by the likes of Steve Shelley, Nels Cline, Jeff Parker, Lee Renaldo, and Tom Rainey. I'm very proud to have made this recording with two of my favorite improvisers, so please give the CD a spin!

After dry spell of Boston shows this year, I now have two upcoming local solo shows, both strangely at the same venue a block from my house, PA's Lounge in Somerville MA. The first one on September 23rd w/Mark Robinson's Flin Flon I detail below, but I forgot to mention that my old pal Aliza Shapiro is the promoter. Under the guise of "Truth Serum," Aliza has been organizing great events around Boston since as long as I remember. You can see what she's up to at the Truth Serum Web site. The second show will be on October 15th, part of the NEST (North East Sticks Together) festival that aims to present local music in a non-commercial environment. So many New England festivals seem to degrade into weird, corporate "Battle of the Bands" formats, so I'm looking forward to seeing what this NEST business is all about.

I also played two more Italian shows with Ardecore before heading north to my home-away-from-home here in Pordenone. The first show was at a great outdoor venue called "Piccolo Bolognetti" in the center of Bologna, and it was truly the best Ardecore show I've played yet. We were crowded together on a small stage, but the sound was great and at least 500 Bolognese turned up. For whatever reason it all came together and we played loud and tight, and sounded more like a tight rock band than we ever have. The next night in Monte Rotundo, a small Roman satellite town, we somehow found ourselves playing to an older crowd (many over 60!) on a stage located inside the walls of the city's police headquarters. A strange show for sure, but stranger shows probably lie ahead for this band. After this, an abridged version of the band went off to Sardina for a couple shows, but I headed North for a break. All in all it was a great summer con i miei amici romani, and I hope to see them when I return to Italy December.

If you've been here before you know that I generally try to keep my personal life separate from my work, but I must testify that the next time you hear me typin' at GF.com, I will be a married man! After 6 wonderful years w/my long-time sweetheart (who I met in Padova in 1998 at Karate's very first Italian show), we will exchange rings on September 2nd at the church in the center of Pordenone, the city where she was born and raised. Needless to say, I'll be offline for a few weeks, but I'll post more when I get back to Boston mid-September.

Italian Tour Report

I'm currently typing from my little enclave in Northern Italy, recovering (sick again...surprise surprise) from a strange chest cough I somehow developed during a two-week stint w/Ardecore. I feel a lot better today, just in time to grab the Eurostar to Bologna and then to Rome for two more concerts. Last week we recorded a full-length's worth of basics in Rome, and it was a lot of fun to sit around Locomotore studio and learn a new batch of tragic Italian folk songs. Gianpaolo chose songs that are more generally Italian and not specifically Roman as were most of the songs on our first record. (Even my Italian friends have trouble deciphering the Roman slang of some of the first Ardecore songs! All I can figure out is that someone drowns in the Tevere in just about every song.) We also played a few festivals around Italy including the aptly-named "Psycho Stage" at Arezzo Wave, the beautiful Villa Ada stage located on a small lake in the center of Rome, and a sagre (Italian summer festival) outside of Milan where drunken locals started fist-fights around our table while we indulged in an incredible 3-course early-morning Lombardian feast after the show. Never a dull moment with the Romans.

Here's a nice little surprize: Mark Robinson asked me to open for his new band Flin Flon at PA's Lounge in Somerville on September 23rd. This might not seem too exciting, but little does Mark know that I am a was a huge fan his old band Unrest during the late 80s and early 90s. Never was there such a beautiful mess of dark-avant-pop-improv as "Imperial ffrr" and "Kustom Karnal Blacksploitation," two of my all-time favorite albums. I saw Unrest live a few times when I lived in DC in '92 (once at the 9:30 club, and once opening for Fugazi) but somehow lost sight of Mark, his great Teen Beat label, and his various projects. It turns out he moved to Boston in 98, the year I left Boston for RI, so our paths never crossed until I recently returned. So thanks to Mark, and I'm looking forward to the show!

Arrivederci!

If you want to brush up on your Italian (as I should probably be doing right about now), here's a short interview I did for an Italian film-music Web site in anticipation of the Ardecore tour. Said tour is shaping up, and it looks like I'll have the privilege to visit some of my favorite Italian cities, and even take a boat to Sardinia. Oh, almost forgot the best news of all: Italy beat Germany, and the final is Sunday night, only a few hours after I arrive in Venice!

Back in the saddle!

Hey, thanks for all the sympathy! It's nice that the gory snapshot of my mangled digit generated such kind accord, and even some empathy from other musicians who have similarly abused themselves. But I'm pleased to say that after 3 tubes of Neosporin and a month off from playing, typing, finger pointing, etc., the digit has healed up nicely and my guitar playing is pretty much back to normal. And just in time, because I have to practice up for the summer Italian tour w/Ardecore in July. Among other shows, we'll be playing the giant Arezzo Wave festival (now apparently known as the "Arezzo Wave Love Festival") on the 15th of July, appearing on Arezzo's "Psycho Stage" no less. Can't wait to see what that's all about.

In Secret Stars Covers news, here's at least the 3rd version of "Some Sinatra" that has appeared on myspace this year, and this one is in German, you heard me, German! If there are any native Deutchlanders listening, yes, that's an English accent you hear. I think the singer is actually American.

Minor Swing

Thanks to everyone who came to the NY, Philly, and DC shows which were all a lot of fun! My apologies to anyone who tried to come to the Boston, Northampton, and Portland shows this past weekend: I had to cancel because I somehow managed to chop off the top of my left-hand index finger while fixing my bike. Fortunately the E-room doc was able to stitch me back up after a considerable amount of blood and panic on my part, but I'll be unable to play guitar (and type, write, and tie my shoe) for at least a few weeks. I guess it's time to pull out those Django discs...

East Coast Tour

My little East Coast spring tour is finalized, and all the dates are posted below in the "Calendar" section of this site. The NY, Philly and DC shows are with Drew O'doherty, a great singer/songwriter who used to play with Boston's Ivory Coast, a band that shared many a bill (and a rehearsal space) with Karate. The Boston show is with Marc Mulcahey, who you might remember from Miracle Legion, one of the best bands to come out of the mid-80s. I have yet to see Drew or Mark play live, so I'm certainly looking forward to these shows.

Hey, check out the new Ardecore Web Site! How cool-looking is that? Can't wait to get back over to Italy this summer and make some sounds with my Roman peeps. Also, found this great Karate Myspace page with lots of bittersweet comments that make me sad and happy at the same time. "Your music is a pillow on which a nervous breakdown falls to sleep." Can't argue with that, eh?

NEA Access to Artistic Excellence Grant

Some of you have heard me rant about working with my uncle on the so-called "Juma Project," an effort to make available a treasure-trove of free-jazz recordings made by Juma Sultan, one-time percussionist with Jimmy Hendrix/bassist with Sonny Simmons. I'm proud to announce that the project has won a $10K Access to Artistic Excellence grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Juma hosted and recorded Friday-night concerts in and around Woodstock NY during the 60s and 70s, and he has preserved hundreds of concert recordings of the likes of Pharoh Sanders, James Ulmer, Albert Ayler, Roswell Rudd, Sam Rivers, and many other now-legendary musicians of the era. Juma held on to these recordings for the past 4 decades until they were noticed by Clarkson University's Professor Stephen Doheny-Farina (the aforementioned uncle) during some unrelated research about two years ago. Since then, Steve, a couple of his colleagues, and I (with advice from Andy Hong, Ian MacKaye, and others) have been brainstorming on how to help Juma make the recordings available to listeners. Steve wrote an NEA grant based on our idea of making these recordings available via the Web, and won $10,000 to fund the project. You can see the grant listed the NEA.gov Recent Grants page (scroll down to "Clarkson University") along with the other 2006 winners. As you can see, most of them are for music that is much more mainstream than ours, so it's great to be part of a rare NEA effort to preserve radical music!

Arigato Gozaimasu Japan!

There's a classic episode of M.A.S.H. where one of the Army hospital's American dentists becomes obsessed with living in Korea. He dresses in a pink Kimono, sips sake while working on patients, looks longingly to the sky as he muses about "the orient," and basically does everything to emulate a stereotypical Asian. After my second trip to Japan, I am quickly becoming such a far-east fanatic, walking around at night in the Japanese robes I collected from Tokyo hotels, snacking on wakame, etamame, and green tea, and falling asleep to the sounds of Gagaku orchestras quietly emanating from my stereo.

However pretentious this might seem, I certainly fell in love with Japan on this trip. I couldn't get enough of the alien cityscapes, the delicate food, the quietly-noble people I talked to (or tried to talk to) every day. The high point of the trip was definitely my first visit to Osaka. (Karate had previously only visited Nagoya, Tokyo, and Kyoto.) Unlike Tokyo, Osaka looks grey and industrial from the highway, but after wandering deep into the streets I started to realize it's every bit as dense and alive as Tokyo. Every little alleyway leads to a whole new series of colorful, neon-clad shops, restaurants, and arcades. (Apparently Osaka was the inspiration for Blade Runner's futuristic city, not Tokyo as I had previously thought.) Osaka also had it's own unique tastes including Octopus Balls and some sort of strange squid-filled omelette; like other Japanese dishes, these sounded disgusting and tasted amazing. I also managed to squeeze in some wandering time in Tokyo, where I spent 2 memorable days exploring when Karate visited a couple years ago. This time I stayed in a hotel in Asakusa that was right next to Sensoji, the giant temple right in the middle of the city, and I spent the next jet-lagged morning exploring the massive temple grounds and taking pictures. Later in the week I returned to the main intersection in Shibuya at rush hour for what has become my favorite activity in Tokyo: watching 4,000 pedestrians cross the street at the same time.

It was also a privilege to play my quiet songs to attentive Japanese audiences. As I learned from Karate's Japan tour, Japanese fans are the most knowledgeable, respectful, and interested music fans in the world. It was wonderful to see everyone's face as I played, with nobody talking loud at the bar, nobody walking in and out of the club, and nobody talking on their cell phones as I played. After the shows I was surprised and delighted to hear people's comments on musical influences, guitar styles, and other music-related issues usually absent from the post-show banter in most places I play. What a dream tour!

Speaking of people who know entirely too much about music, traveling on the West Coast w/Chris Brokaw was predictably a learning experience, and not just from watching his amazing guitar playing every night. I got to hear Chris' first hand accounts of hanging out with Tony Conrad during Chris' recent stint with Rhys Chatham, among other great tour stories. If you've been reading this blog you already know that Chris is one of my favorite musicians ever, and it was a gift to share the stage with him for an entire tour. Although attendance was predictably low at some of the shows (LA & San Diego where Karate rarely had good shows), we had great shows in Seattle, Portland, Eureka and San Francisco where we opened for Sean Hayes at the Noise Pop festival. Chris and I also played renditions of some Gary Davis and Charlie Patton tunes to top off the sets, and hopefully we'll be doing more of that in the future.

More Secret Stars covers!

Just a quick update before leaving for tour: More solo shows have been confirmed and listed under the "calendar" section on the right. Mostly added the final dates of the West Coast tour, including an appearance at the Noisepop Festival in San Francisco on April 2nd. East Coast dates are starting to trickle in, the first of which being a Knitting Factory show confirmed for May 5th. Other May solo dates should include Philly, Portland (ME), DC, Providence and Boston, so I think I've just about got my bases covered for the spring.

It seems like Death Cab for Cutie and Ida started a trend with their Secret Stars covers because every month or so someone sends me a link to their version of an old Secret Stars song. Here's an interesting version of Some Sinatra by a band that seems to have named themselves after the Karate song "Some Ghosts", and yet another charming version from someone from Olympia. Here's Eric Metronome's version of Sanity Assassins, a song we put on a split single with Ida way back in the day. All I can say is that these all sound great, and it's wonderful to hear those songs live on!

Miscellany:

A performance at Osaka's Unagidani Sunsui was just added to my Japan tour which is now completely booked--no time to wander the streets of Akihabara and Shinjuku sampling amazing Japanese food on this tour, but the bright side is I may not return home completely broke this time. Also, I'd like to welcome The Dish PR to the proverbial team. They will be doing press/promo for "Already Told You," my 4-song disc due out on Southern Records on April 18th. Finally, did you know that Glenn Branca is originally from Harrisburg PA, my home town? I received an email soliciting guitarists for Branca's LA performance of his Symphony 13 for 100 Guitars (from which my guitar will unfortunately be absent), and I followed a link or two, and sure enough, he was born in Harrisburg in 1948! Maybe that's where he bought this freaky guitar?

Back to work!

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